Hello and welcome Guardians, this is your friendly neighborhood AnonPig and I’m here to talk about what just might be the future of Destiny, the Iron Lords, Banner, and Wolves. If you haven’t seen the “leak” the above image was sent around not too long ago. A supposed expansion called Rise of Iron, in this post we’ll first cover the validity of the leak and then touch on the lore of it all. I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t see any logical expansion going in this direction, Bungie has been building up the Vex slowly in the background. I wanted the fabled Vex Void to finally come, but I had the sinking feeling of doubt more and more as time went on that it wouldn’t be. The Eliksni (Fallen) are my favorite, and I want them to get a good focus more than anything, but it just didn’t fit the time in my opinion. But that’s not to say that this wasn’t being said as far back as March 11th, [url=https://twitter.com/Kadi5530/status/708291938789625856]like this tweet[/url] [quote]April Update #Destiny: PoE renewed, 2 new Strikes, Light 335, Lootboxes (a. MT) - Fall DLC: Fallen Raid and many more ;).[/quote] This was what i would call the first leak. It’s been on the nose up to this point, and with more visual aspects only aiding in it. K-dub from Guardian Radio had something to say about the image as well, this is his take on the leak. (starts at 39 minutes of episode 164 found [url=http://theguardiansofdestiny.com/guardian-radio-episode-164/]here[/url] [quote]I wanna say i work for a company, we make the largest copy printing devices in the world, and this is professionally printed, and if you look at the image you’ll see at the top there’s these little color bands. Those are RGBCKY (sorry if i got the letters wrong here) color bands and those are all of the colors used in ink to make every color there is known to man, and they’re at the top of that poster which signifies that was professionally printed and that’s a proof. So that is absolutely a real document, that was professionally made and printed[/quote] Now if you look closely at the image you’ll notice it has a small < symbol at the right hand side, that’s because this was a snapchat leaked image. It would make sense that Bungie designed this as a poster for E3 and sent it out to be printed, when someone saw what it was they snapped it to a friend thinking nothing would happen, and from one friend they could have passed it to another and another and essentially blurred the lines and make it impossible to track back to the one who took the picture. Because of all this, as much as I wanted Vex Void, I’m going to say it’s legitimate. . So let’s get into the lore surrounding this topic to see just how likely it is, and what we can expect for the future assuming of course it is a legitimate leak. If you don’t already follow @ishtarcoll you absolutely should, because it’s Baxter and his team who made me make some of the connections I’m about to show you. Every day at 9am Eastern they tweet a semi-random Grimoire card, item, or even quest, and just a couple days ago they posted [url=https://twitter.com/IshtarColl/status/736905019706900480]this one[/url] for those who dont want to open the link, it’s a blue item called Cloak of the Ironsworn with the flavor text [quote]”Those who find victory in the Crucible will win salvation for our City.” - Iron Banner Maxim[/quote] Now this was just amazing for me to read, I don’t know how many times I just glanced over it, but this time it stuck. For those who don’t know a maxim is a “short, pithy statement expressing a general truth or rule of conduct.” Which tells us a lot, the Iron Banner had maxims, this one at least for sure, but this is coming from an item calling it’s owner an “Ironsworn” We know the Iron Lords, who led patrols during Six Fronts and during the building of the Walls, all nine of them. We now have hints that there were nine others named Iron Wolves, but Ironsworn? This is the one and only mention of them. So who were they exactly? As I said we know the Iron Lords, their names and classes being expressed on the PS exclusive Iron Banner gear. [quote]Forged in remembrance of Efrideet, she whose keen eye never missed her mark.[/quote] [quote]Forged in remembrance of Gheleon, he who was a true Guardian to the people.[/quote] [quote]Forged in remembrance of Perun, she who hunted the Darkness where it dwelt.[/quote] [quote]Forged in remembrance of Silimar, he who was the Last City's first wall.[/quote] [quote]Forged in remembrance of Radegast, he who was first among the peers of the Iron Banner.[/quote] [quote]Forged in remembrance of Jolder, she whose mighty hammer taught the Darkness fear.[/quote] [quote]Forged in remembrance of Felwinter, he who stared into the Void.[/quote] [quote]Forged in remembrance of Skorri, she who sang out the Iron Song.[/quote] [quote]Forged in remembrance of Timur, he whom the City's enemies dreaded most.[/quote] These are the nine Iron Lords, but one, Skorri, may be a little different than the rest. [b]Skorri’s Dirge[/b][quote]They say she's apart from the Iron Banner, yet she sings songs of her lost companions.[/quote] So if Skorri was apart from the Iron Banner, could she have been simply an Ironsworn? One who was close, but not a part of the primary group? It might just be that she was that, and that she actually replaced an Iron Lord, one who’s head we have as an artifact now. [b]Segoth’s Head[/b][quote]”Thought we formed the Banner to fight the Darkness, not ourselves. Just don't bode well, s'all I'm sayin'” —Gheleon[/quote] This is further suggested when we look at another bond from an older Iron Banner. [b]Skorri’s Iron Bond[/b][quote]”Rise above, so that you may lift those below.”[/quote] Is this referencing the progression of Skorri from Ironsworn to Iron Lord? To be honest I’m not entirely sure. There’s so little to go on, it’s certainly a possibility, but we may never know for sure. But in any case, I guess the Iron Banner wasn’t as picture perfect as Saladin Forge would have us believe. [b]Radegast’s Blade[/b][quote]So long as this sword was whole, the Iron Banner could not be broken.[/quote] I would like to say, the blade is shattered. We currently don’t know what befell the Iron Lords, but it could have been infighting, it could have simply been an overwhelming force, and it could have been just that the City felt they weren’t needed. The last seems the least likely though. The first, in my opinion is what happened though. They were there when the City was just getting it’s legs, when Guardians were just becoming Guardians, they were the founding fathers and mothers of the City, and they very likely had different views on how it should be run. [b]Wolfswood Cloak[/b][quote]In our darkest hour, nine Iron Wolves emerged from the ruins.[/quote] It’s this cloak that introduces the next set of heroes for the City. There are people who believe that the Iron Wolves and Lords are one in the same, but I do not see it this way, and this is really where the Rise of Iron comes into play. Most of you should remember the special emblem that came to us at the new year, the red sun on the horizon of the City. [url=http://www.justpushstart.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Screen-Shot-2016-01-07-at-2.17.09-PM.png]This emblem[/url] No it’s not Vex Spires, it’s literally the City from the grimoire card index image. This seemingly completely unimportant emblem, not even cool enough to be worn, is the key. [b]Wolfswood Bond[/b][quote]Under a red dawn, the Iron Wolves gathered beneath the Ironwood.[/quote] [b]Wolfswood Mark[/b][quote]And beneath its branches, the Iron Wolves forged an unbreakable oath.[/quote] And then in the darkest hour of the Iron Lords these nine, possibly once Ironsworn, Iron Wolves come out to protect our future. The new Iron Banner weapons are likely the names of these Iron Wolves. These are the heroes we fight for in emulation in the Iron Banner. We fight each other to train ourselves to our best strengths possible because none are more powerful than a Guardian. These are the heroes that we will be bringing the fight to the enemy in memory for. . I’d like to show you another image, this one will help explain what i believe will be happening in the Rise of Iron. In [url=https://www.geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/risegif.gif]this image[/url] we see the same Rise of Iron leak, but it transitions near perfectly to the outside of the Cosmodrome wall, the key here is on the left half there’s the РФБА (Russian Federal Bureau of Aeronautics) symbol. On no other walls can this be found. The main speculation I’ve seen about this image is that the Eliksni attack us, attack the City, and that it’ll be Twilight Gap II. But that makes no sense to me, the Cosmodrome is Eliksni territory, they wouldn’t destroy their own wall to attack us, and look at the upper right side of the destroyed wall, there’s flames left behind. I believe these are left behind by Saladin, who in the DLC will be leading an attack against the House of Kings. Saladin holds the Iron Banner to train us, this DLC will not be a PvP focused game, I believe he’s finally found someone who he feels is ready to take the fight back. Thank you for reading, this is your friendly neighborhood AnonPig! A funny coincidence was made by Lord Puncake [quote]Rise of Iron RoI Roi is French for "King" House of Kings I feel like one of those people who finds illuminati in everything.[/quote] [url=https://www.bungie.net/ru/Forum/Post/115658936/0/0]AnonPig’s Theories Archived[/url]